Sleight of hand
by nimble thimble
Summary: There once was a boy who lived alone. He lived in a big, empty compound. One day, the boy had a visitor. The boy was never lonely again. [Modern vampire AU, Sasuke. Hinata.]
1. Chapter 1

**Warnings**: Vague references to underage (never detailed), violence, character death, language, sexual content, Unbeta'd

I wanted to try my hand at a vampire fanfic, hopefully it actually isn't terrible. The vampire theme here is inspired by vampire cultures depicted in the book Let the Right One In and the films Only Lovers Left Alive and The Lost fanfic isn't going to have very many chapters and it won't have a big word count either. :/ it's going to be longer than a drabble per chapter, and it'll go through several short arcs before it ends. I don't totally have it planned out to a T so for most of it I'll just be winging it.

* * *

Storms never really bothered him.

The lightning, the thunder, the rain and wind usually just meant that he probably wouldn't have any of his annoying classmates follow him home to bug him to let them drink or smoke at his place.

As if he'd let them stink up his house.

Sasuke took a long drink of water and then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. The house was dusty, and he could see mold on the ceiling. Supposedly the housekeeper who never actually did much cleaning had already come this week and did her job. Sasuke disagreed.

He scowled up at the black dots of mold momentarily.

He was probably going to get asbestos from this. He was going to have to clean it himself. Damn it.

The cook had left food. Rice balls, a stew, dumplings, baked fish, grilled beef, vegetables of every kind, salads and sliced tomatoes – enough to last the week. The cook wasn't amazing, and her food tasted a little bland but Sasuke had had worse.

The handyman had fixed all the leaks but had yet to repair the rotting wood damage the porch was suffering. Sasuke nearly broke his leg going to school a couple weeks ago.

And he had a history project due by the end of the week. With Naruto. Who had run away the last time they were supposed to meet and pool together information.

Sasuke turned to look at his abandoned backpack lying next to the couch in the living area. Life sucked.

Thunder roared and the absurdly following the loud noise, a tap came at the door, sharp and crisp.

Sasuke turned to look up at the door in surprise. Lightning lit at the side of his face. It was late, and it was dark and rainy and seriously who the hell was that?

He eyed the door suspiciously and the tap came louder again, this time thrice.

In horror movies, this would usually signal a psychopath waiting at the doorstep. Sasuke happened to live in reality and this was more than likely some weirdo fangirl. Or Naruto.

His frown deepened while he moved closer to the door, feeling at his cell phone in his pants pocket.

The knock came again, once, but loud and jarring enough that Sasuke was positive he heard the door creak.

He felt a tremor go through his body, but stiffened his posture and scowled – this was his house and the hell someone was going to intimidate him in it.

He swung the door open and there stood a girl in an old, worn school uniform. He blinked and felt all the tension in his body escape like an exhale.

An older girl, a teenager, taller than him, with long dark hair and ghostly eyes stood near the threshold. She looked like a drowned rat; soaked to the bone and standing in front of him without shivering she just stared back at him, unblinkingly.

Sasuke cleared his throat, "What."

She blinked for the first time, "May-may I come in? I got caught in the storm…"

Sasuke felt his eyes go half-mast. "No. Go to a rest stop," and he made to close the door in her face loudly, feeling somewhat passive aggressive that she had caught him off guard but the door abruptly stopped.

A pale, long fingered hand was wrapped around the edges of the door and tightened. Her nails dug in. "Please. If I may just come in…"

Sasuke made an annoyed sound and pushed at the door ineffectually. "No. Get out. Let go of my door."

Her grip tightened enough that Sasuke knew this time he definitely heard the wood creak. In the distance, muffled by the wind and rain and far off sounding thunder, he thought he heard sirens. Her face appeared close to his – so quickly he hadn't seen her move. Had she always been that close? "Let me in. Please. It's very cold out here. I just need to rest." She insisted.

Sasuke pursed his mouth. "You're not even shivering," he accused.

"I will be," her voice had dropped to a whisper and she seemed closer than the last time he blinked. "Let me in." She encouraged.

He scowled and glared but stepped aside. "Come in. But you better leave when the storm dies down."

She gave a small smile and thanked him, stepping into his home. Sasuke thought he may have imagined the chill that went down his spine, and the odd sharpness that accompanied her smile.

He shut the door behind him and noticed the goose bumps that tread along his arms, raising the fine hairs.

The girl turned to face him, dripping water. "Um. Could I please have a towel? I don't want to track water in the house." She remained on the mat in front of the door politely.

He rolled his eyes and went to a closet full of towels. Some of them smelled a bit like dust. He yanked a large dark blue one out and threw it at her. "Thank you," she murmured under the towel, scrubbing at herself diligently. He eyed her cautiously. She wasn't nearly as pushy as she had been at the door. He shook off the feeling and went to the kitchen for a glass of water.

He rubbed his arms irritably until the bumps went away. The back of his neck still felt chilled.


	2. Chapter 2

Warnings: Vague references to underage situations (never detailed), violence, character death, language, sexual content. There is an age gap between the two main characters that will eventually be addressed accordingly.

Thank you for the reviews, they were kind and encouraging. They made me feel much more comfortable posting a second chapter…mostly because I was intimidated previously. : )

* * *

She slept like she was dead.

Sasuke eyed her distrustfully. She was barely breathing and she hadn't moved even after he had roughly shaken her shoulder.

The guestroom she'd stayed in had no windows except for a small slit-faced one at the top left corner of the room. Old books, dusty paintings, moldy clothes and such were stored in the room – it was stuffy and unwelcoming and not the ideal setup for a guest. But Sasuke insisted and the girl hadn't protested.

It was also the furthest one away from his room.

Sasuke felt something cold touch the tips of his fingers and he looked down to see her toes. They were rather average looking, as far as feet went. Small and narrow with prominent ankle bones – she could've had dancer's legs from the looks of her calves, lean and feminine, if she hadn't had such thick thighs.

Sasuke touched the tip of his finger to her largest toe, flicking it.

There was no response.

She looked like a dead girl. He exhaled swiftly and thought about calling the police, or the handyman, or the nosy middle-aged woman across the street to help get rid of her – but she had been invited into his home. And she wasn't really doing anything except not leaving. Because she wasn't conscious.

A quick look at his watch sent a jolt of irritation through him. He gripped the strap of his backpack tightly and left the room with an exasperated grunt.

He left the not-dead girl where she was.

.

.

Sasuke stared ahead blandly, attempting to ignore Naruto's persistent hissing from his seat one row over and casually scooting love notes from various girls off of his desk in a neat pile.

Typically in Japanese they were supposed to be learning Japanese; kanji, hiragana, roots that led to Chinese ancestry and evolution of the language as well as proper writing. Mostly though, the classroom was in self-study all the time with very little work given to them. He completely blamed their teacher.

As it was, she had her feet up on her desk near her daily apple (she demanded them from her classes and threatened if there was a day that one of her classes didn't bring an apple, she would make sure they repeated the year) and looked to be engrossed in a porno mag she didn't even attempt to conceal.

The loud crack of her gum snapped through the silence of the room.

Sasuke had already finished his classwork. And the homework.

Now he just stared at the clock.

Something hit the side of his head with enough force to jar him from spacing out. There was only one person in this classroom who would do that. "_Idiot_," he hissed. The crude wad of notebook paper and rubber bands nearly rolled off his desk but he caught it and without looking, flung it back in the direction it had come from. There was a muffled shriek followed by the sound of cursing.

He folded his hands in front of his mouth to hide the pleased look on his face.

"Ne, ne, Sasuke. Ne, Sasuke."

He sounded like a bird chirping in the morning. Sasuke hated morning birds.

"NE. Sa-Su-Ke. Neeeee."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

"Saaaa-sssuuuuu-keeeee. Ne. Ne, ne."

Sasuke whipped his head around to stare at Naruto. "What."

The blond stared at Sasuke rather seriously. "Ne. Sasuke. What's our project on again?"

Sasuke's lids lowered and he took a long breath, turning back to face the clock. "You're an idiot. And you're going to get detention."

Naruto's brows scrunched, "Haaah?"

_Ping-ponng_.

"That's a wrap. Everyone hand in their work. Class's over, get out, do your homework or face the consequences. Oooiiii. Uzumaki. What's with that shitty looking blank worksheet I see?"

Naruto's eyes widened and Sasuke mused their teacher could move pretty fast when she was suddenly in front of the moron who thought he had enough time to annoy the crap out of him _and_ finish his work. "I did some," he hurried but was met with a face slap from a tightly wrapped magazine.

Sasuke observed the interaction from his periphery, still hiding his smirk.

_Tch. Serves him right. Hit him again sensei_.

"Shaddup. Detention."

_Told you_.

"What?! Shikamaru didn't finish his either – he's sleeping on it!"

_So what? He already knows all the answers._

"Because he's a lazy ass, not stupid, and he aces his tests unlike some yappers. And I don't like your face. Detention. You can scrape gum off the desks and chairs."

"_No fair no fair nofair_. That's _your_ gum!"

_That's why she's making you do it. Idiot. _

"So?" as if to punctuate her point, she snapped her gum. She craned her head to look at the rest of the class. "Hmmm? What the hell are all of you gawking at?"

Books were hurriedly shoved into backpacks and chairs screeched as everyone rushed to lunch. Sasuke slung his bag over his shoulder and calmly made his way to the exit. Mitarashi-sensei already had her victim; she wasn't going to go chasing others.

Sasuke nearly turned at the sound of someone spitting followed by: "That's my desk! Gah and it's still wet!" and then a low chuckle, but thought better of it and headed to the roof.

As he ascended the stairs to solitude for half an hour, his thoughts turned to the older girl he'd taken in and if she was still sleeping – shouldn't she be at high school or something? Was she a runaway? Sasuke wasn't exactly the type to take in strays so he had no idea what a girl would be doing out so late in such bad conditions. And what was the point of taking her in anyway? All she did was make marks on his door (he'd checked and there were definitely scratches from her nails), drip water all over his floor and dirty a towel with mud and things.

She was attractive in an exotic, older woman sort of way, he guessed, but if a pretty face was all it took to sway him, he'd likely be dating one of his fangirls by now.

Maybe pity? He thought to how she looked soaked to the bone as the storm raged behind her. But she hadn't been shivering or looking particularly depressed about being caught in the weather.

"_Let me in._"

As he opened the door to the roof and a strong gust of wind blew in his face, Sasuke contemplated that maybe it had been something else entirely.


	3. Chapter 3

Warnings: Vague references to underage (never detailed), violence, character death, language, sexual content. There is an age gap between the two main characters that will eventually be addressed accordingly.

Thanks you guys, it's really nice hearing that the fic is well received. And special shout out to Voyna because your reviews totally tickled me and for mentioning a phrase I'd never heard before (had to look it up!). And a reviewer mentioned the fic being very similar to another story, which I did read, and it did inspire me to write a fic where Hinata was the vampire, but that's all that I have purposely made similar to her fic, and I do have a different direction in mind more towards _Let Me The Right One In_. Thanks again guys.

.

.

When she finally woke up, Hinata was momentarily disoriented by the look of the room. She sat up slowly, looking from corner to corner and cataloguing everything. A bureau to the corner was topped with odd things like old glass perfume bottles, tubes of lipstick and mascara, a straight razor beside a shaving bowl and brush and an old ink set.

There was a large, full bookshelf, a rack of shoes, expensive paintings stacked on top of each other shoved crudely to the side of the room. It wasn't a large room so the amount of things in it made the room seem even smaller.

_Am I in a storage closet_?

She took a pointed sniff of the room and noted that it smelled like a shut away attic. Dry, unused and dusty. She could vaguely recall being led to a room, but mostly she just remembered the boy's face.

She swung her legs off to go towards the bedroom door but swayed to the side. She inhaled quickly and caught her head in her hands. She still felt dizzy and her mouth was parched, as if she'd chewed on a cotton ball.

"N-not good," she murmured down to the floor, "Not good."

She swallowed and tried standing again, using the bedpost towards the end of the bed to give her momentum to push up. She made her way to the door and opened it carefully.

The hallway was long and dark. One end led to an open living area and the other led to a dead end with several doors along the way. An old painting hung at the end of the hallway, it looked to be a family painting with wear and tear. Hinata could see a small boy in the middle, flanked by an older woman and man and a teenage boy right beside him. The small child was the boy who had taken her in from the storm last night.

He didn't have such a sweet smile now though, she noted.

Leaning her weight on the walls of the hall, she navigated to the living area. It opened into a kitchen, if she recalled right.

Maybe there was something to perk her up.

The dining table was a dark wood, maybe cherry, with a complete set of eight chairs. A fine layer of dust swept the top of the chairs and Hinata wagered the table hadn't been used properly in years.

Hinata pulled on the handle of the fridge and saw pre-cooked homemade meals. She pushed aside the rice balls and the stew, the baked fish and the cooked meat, and the salads to see the raw foods closer to the back.

She could smell it through its brown paper wrapping – fresh and not from a supermarket, good quality. She gripped the flared edge of the package and inched it closer to the front of the fridge so she could grab it neatly.

She felt saliva collect in her mouth when she opened it so she could smell it fully. She _shouldn't_ - it was rude and besides her courtesies, it wasn't normal. It was grotesque.

But she was just so hungry.

.

.

The sky had darkened quicker than normal, a sign that they were indeed in the season of fall. The walk from school to his house wasn't normally longer than a little over half an hour but he'd left school rather late.

In a sudden change in patience, Sasuke had waited after school until Naruto's detention had ended and then dragged his project partner off to the library for research. It had been Naruto's idea to focus on a British person of interest for their project which was fine but he insisted it be John Cleese or the duo from Little Britain. Sasuke had disagreed.

Then Naruto had fallen asleep in the middle of reading and Sasuke was left staring at the mountain of books and his drooling partner.

Sasuke tugged at the straps of his backpack and felt the weight of the seven books on his back keenly. Naruto would pay for this in one way or another, so he'd left him asleep at the table in the library and took what books he'd need.

It was a stupid project anyway. Find a foreign person of historical significance; make a timeline of their feats and try to connect them directly or indirectly to other famous people. Then make it attractive on a poster board with markers.

What were they, five?

He exhaled sharply through his nose and took a shortcut down an alleyway to his home.

His house…

He wondered if the girl was awake.

Was she wandering his house looking for other people? Was she a thief, stealing antiques that had no real purpose in his home? Was she a junkie, looking for a private place to hit up? Who was she? And why had she been wandering around?

He wondered why she looked familiar.

His house loomed just ahead, dark and ominous. It was built rather traditionally with several modern upgrades. The twilight had turned the sky a bruised purple. There wasn't even the outline of a moon out, just pitch black clouds rolling in.

He put his hand in his pocket to dig out his keys.

He gripped the doorknob and stopped, feeling a chill go down his spine. The wood of the door had creaked softly, as if something had been leaning against it. His fingers twitched and he opened the door slowly, seeing it was still unlit in his home.

He blinked rapidly, trying to force his eyes to adjust to the change and felt along the wall blindly with one hand.

He turned the light on and started at the sight of the girl sitting at the dining table cradling a mug in her hands. She looked up and met his eyes sheepishly, "Um hi."

He felt his upper lip twitch as if to scowl but plowed ahead. "What are you doing, sitting in the dark like that?"

She blinked, "Oh…sorry. Did I scare you?"

The scowl came this time, full force. "No."

She looked at him knowingly and lowered her eyes.

"Why are you still here?" he asked, mostly rhetorically.

She looked up again, eyes wide. "Should I le-leave?"

He tugged his backpack off and set it aside before crossing his arms over his chest. "Why were you out last night? There was a storm."

"I-I didn't have anywhere else to go. And I saw a light on."

Sasuke squinted one eye and grimaced at her. "Why don't you go home?"

She smiled a bit this time and it looked rather bitter. "I, ah, don't have one anymore."

Sasuke scratched his forehead, feeling somewhat awkward. He understood not having a home. "There were other houses with their lights on," he mumbled.

Her eyes stared at him rather intensely as if she was experiencing tunnel vision. "But I came here." She assured softly, her voice dipping lower.

He rolled his eyes, "Obviously."

There was a long, unsettling silence before Sasuke spoke up. "What's your name?"

"H-Hinata. And yours?"

"Sasuke. What about your last name?" he asked while walking to the kitchen to grab something to eat.

Hinata remained quiet. He looked over his shoulder and put it out of his mind. She could be mysterious then. He reached in and grabbed a rice ball. When he touched it he felt something cold, sticky, and slimy and yanked his hand out. The spots on his fingers were dark and thick and had a reddish tinge in the light. He wrinkled his nose – blood? He looked in and there was a small trail from the back of the fridge. The cook not cleaning up her messes again.

He grabbed the rice ball and headed for the trash and wrinkled his nose at the innards of it. Torn wrapping and what looked like gnawed on raw, bloodless meat surrounded by numerous wrappings and other odd trash things the cook had left behind. He threw the rice ball in.

Washing his hands, he heard from behind him, "Do-do you mind if I stay? I-I can help clean or, or cook."

He frowned deeply. "I don't want you staying." He definitely wasn't going to say it was because she could creep him out.

She made a distressed noise, "I won't be in the way," she insisted, her voice softening in volume again, but sounding closer somehow.

"No. You should've left when you woke up." He scrubbed under his fingernails where the blood had soaked to. He turned the water off and dried his hands on the kitchen towel. She was being persistent again. Stupid girl.

Turning, he came nearly face to face with her. Hissing out an expletive, he backed up and thankfully Hinata remained where she was. He hadn't even heard her push out of her chair. Her eyes remained unblinking and her body seemed to lean towards him. "Please, just another night. That's all." She begged and Sasuke looked at her blankly, feeling unsettled somehow.

He spoke then, sterner than he felt, "Then tell me your last name."

She bit her lip and seemed to come out of whatever daze she'd been in. "Hyu-Hyuuga. My name is Hyuuga Hinata."


	4. Chapter 4

Warnings: Vague references to underage (never detailed), violence, character death, language, sexual content. There is an age gap between the two main characters that will eventually be addressed accordingly.

Thanks again guys : ) you're all sweet. Good news! I think I know what I'm doing with the story now (hopefully!). Bad news, we're bracing for two possible hurricanes in my area so power outages... . And as a clarification, I really won't be doing Hinata's POV very often, since I'm trying to tell it from the POV of a normal person who perceives these events. Hinata's POV will come up once in a while for explanations sake mostly.

.

.

**Hyuuga**.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

It sounded familiar. It sounded old, or at least a name he'd definitely heard around before.

Sasuke balanced his pencil on the distal joint of his finger. Not that it mattered, he supposed. But she wasn't making sense. Sasuke didn't quite fit the definition of the old adage, 'curiosity killed the cat' but she was different than usual. Different from what he was used to everyday. It was natural that he felt suspicious.

She wasn't routine.

From beyond the quiet thoughts he kept to himself, the outside world was pressing in, clamoring with the noise of his classmates.

Naruto was arguing about some anime or something with Kiba and Chouji, while Sakura and Ino conversed about some teen romance series while they read up on their English assignment.

At least, Sasuke thought, the girls could multitask. He slid his eyes over to look at the rest of his team. Girls may be weird and annoying, and perhaps they cried or whined too much, but they could spread their focus better than most boys their age. They were at least reading up for their presentation and mid-term paper while they talked about an unrelated topic.

Meanwhile…

Sasuke's blank face didn't even remotely resemble a proper expression while he listened in on the other half of his group.

"Gohan or Ichigo?" Chouji challenged.

"Nnnn Ichigo. At least he doesn't act all pussy when it comes to fighting. I mean Gohan's Super-Saiya outfit –" Kiba began before he was interrupted.

"What?! No way! Well okay yeah Gohan is kinda pussy about fighting and stuff, but he owned Cell when he was a _kid_. Ichigo has to actually like _die_ before he gets better at anything. Gohan just puts on his boss-face and levels up. But heh, I guess greatness runs in the family or something like that?" Naruto gesticulated with his hands wildly and ended with a vaguely smug look. Kiba scowled. Chouji nodded.

"Ya know Goku dies a lot and levels up, right?" Kiba asked disgustedly.

Naruto turned narrow eyes on Kiba. "Goku. Is a badass."

"Who dies a lot. Like. Alllll the time. He even likes staying dead."

"Ah but you know Ichigo has his Hollow form…" Chouji considered, sucking absently at a jawbreaker he'd snuck in the classroom.

Sakura and Ino had begun shooting the boys evil looks. Sasuke wasn't surprised. It was coming.

"Why did you guys come to our group? All you guys ever talk about are Dragon Balls and Detergent and, at the moment, who would win a _stupid fake _fight between _fake_ people who live in totally different _fake_ worlds!" Sakura hissed.

Naruto and Kiba puffed up, "That's not what they're – "

"We don't care what they're called. No one cares. The point is this: you three haven't done squat leaving Forehead, me, and Sasuke-kun to do all the work. Per usual. I mean it's not like all the other classes have projects or exams due at the same time right now." Ino muttered without lifting her eyes off of her tablet and making notes to the side in a small notebook.

"Right. It's completely fine to do stupid crap while all the teachers are piling the work on at the same time. Please, continue, while Pig-girl, myself and Sasuke-kun read things we don't want to just because we're that bored," Sakura's sweet smile contradicted her flat, irritated tone.

Sasuke resisted the urge to raise an eyebrow. He was still just staring at the Table of Contents in his book. Sakura had plowed through half the book she'd brought back from the library and Ino had already bookmarked several sites for research.

Nonetheless, Kiba and Naruto deflated with similar pouts while Chouji just shrugged his shoulders and turned to a page in his textbook.

The whole class had heard and while normally getting scolded in such a manner would arouse some humor, it happened too often to Uzumaki and Inuzuka for anyone to really count it as anything other than normal. Now and again it may or may not be accompanied by a collective eye roll depending on how good the show was. As it was, no one even looked up from their work.

Sasuke turned his eyes back to the book and looked at the different sections with their small paraphrases and decided to just make a quick decision. It didn't really matter.

A project that they would have to translate and read in English about any topic they wanted. His group chose popular urban myth creatures, one each, and while Sasuke hadn't particularly minded topic, he hated the way they would have to present it.

They'd have to do it in power point format with lots of pictures and flair and color, with a memorized script they would speak in English then translate it in Japanese for the class. As if one paragraph of English would really amount to anything. They weren't even required to have a specific amount of time or word count for it. He could already hear the Google translations droning in his ears.

Sasuke flipped through the book twice and stopped randomly at a title page of a section. He skimmed it and shifted in his seat, feeling more alert after he did so. He scanned the page again, reading it more thoroughly. The white noise of classmates talking, the scratching of pencils and the _whik_ of pages turning seemed quieter as he read.

**Superstitions Regarding Invitations**:

"Regarding invitations to the supernatural it comes in basic forms. It's an opening of a door, a sign of hospitality and etiquette that we all learn from around the world: to welcome someone, even a stranger, into one's home and perhaps give them a place to rest and something to eat. Things like 'come in', 'welcome' and even the less formal 'get in' have attached connotations that suggest an offer extended no matter whoever it is being offered to. These connotations can include 'come in' but could suggest 'would you like water?' or 'welcome to my house' is to 'you are welcome to my house'. Vague things like invitations leave room for interpretation and the supernatural beings, from all different cultures in innumerable different types of creatures, make use of this. They prey upon hospitality.

Of course the legends regarding invitations extended to the supernatural were more or less warnings for people to be wary of strangers…"

Sasuke's eyes widened by a fraction. "…_They prey upon hospitality_…"

_"Let me in." And beneath her fingers, the wood creaked. _

He rubbed the back of his neck where goose bumps had broken out and brushed the fine hairs down.

Somehow, although it really meant nothing about his situation or her, it felt - uncomfortable.


	5. Chapter 5

Warnings: Vague references to underage (never detailed), violence, character death, language, sexual content.

Welp. The hurricane sucked and we didn't have power for a little over a week. Thanks for the reviews guys, and please continue to be patient. This story isn't an action or romance technically, so it's going to take a bit of time and Sasuke's actual age (because I haven't confirmed it yet!) will be coming up in the next chapter. It's a short one this time! More of an interlude.

.

.

Suspiciously, he leaned against the railing of the back porch.

He hadn't been certain, but now he was.

When he came home, the cobwebs were gone. The floor had been swept and mopped, the dining table polished, and the trash taken out.

Perhaps, he'd considered earlier, the cleaning lady had come by and did her jobs earlier than usual. She just happened to not call this time.

Now, he was sure.

It was not the cleaning lady.

Other things had been done to his home, certainly things the cleaning lady wouldn't have done.

The railing of the back porch had been fixed; the old wood that had been rotting had been ripped out and replaced with the unpainted wood from the shed in the backyard.

The handyman only ever came once a month unless Sasuke called and it was deemed of utmost importance. Even then, Sasuke's calls were usually on the backburner.

He leaned against the railing, now properly nailed and adjusted so it didn't give way under a little weight, and it no longer sagged.

He turned back to the house, staring into the open doorway. He nearly expected her to be lingering behind him, watching him and breathing and just _watching_.

He'd started getting used to her throughout the week.

She seemed like a night person, she was always asleep when he left for school, but at times, when he stayed up late to read or watch television, he would hear the house move around him. He would rarely hear her do anything, but it was as if the house itself was breathing when she was awake.

The wood in his doors and floors swelled and creaked softly, the water in the pipes in the walls rushed and dripped.

He supposed, distantly, that it was strange that a boy in middle school who lived alone would welcome a girl in high school into his home for days on end.

He didn't know when she would actually leave. She asked only for another day but she had yet to leave or even acknowledge the subject.

He pushed away from the railing and went inside, gravitating towards a lamp in the living area. She was interesting, and out of the way, so he'd let her stay for now. She cleaned, as she said she would, and she fixed the stairs in the back.

They interacted a little, in passing, or on purpose on her part. She would ask him about his day and whether or not he responded, she would remain near him. He'd feel her – _observe_ him. He would never see her eyes on him; they would be trained to the side or down to the floor. But he would feel her _watching_ him somehow.

Sasuke wasn't innocent of observation though. He'd started noticing things about her. Strange things about an equally strange person. Sometimes, she'd sit in the dark at the dining table. Once, he'd passed her room to dig out blank computer paper from the office at the end of the hall, and he'd seen the outline of her figure sitting on her bed in the dark.

The sight had given him chills, had made him freeze momentarily before he rushed by.

And he never noticed her eat anything. He'd checked the fridge to see what she might've ate, checked the contents of the trash. There was nothing that wasn't his.

She'd drink tea, cold and hot, and water but she never ate.

It was probably a diet or something stupid – something girlish.

But.

Still. He never saw her eat.

He heard the floors creak, and he listened to the house breathe. From the dark in the hallway where her room was, he saw a figure walking slowly towards the living room. It was the girl, no longer in her faded, worn school uniform, but in fresh clothes left behind by a cousin of his. She wore a dark shirt and light khaki colored shorts. He could see the lamp light reflect in her eyes like an animal's.

She loomed from the dark, stepping into the glow of the lamp and turning on the chandelier in the dining area. She bowed her head a bit and greeted him. Looking shy, she tucked her hair behind her ears. "How was your day, Sasuke-san?" she asked quietly. Speaking and referring to him as if he weren't younger than her, treating him as if he were an adult or of equal age. It was refreshing, almost, to be considered like that.

But –

There it was again.

That strange insistence in her voice. For all her courtesies, Sasuke wondered if she was really sincerely polite. The undercurrent in her questions and answers wasn't something he could identify. He wasn't sure if he wanted to.

He could see his figure in her wide eyes and he was small and pale and young and he felt as if her eyes alone could swallow him whole.


End file.
